Interview with a Retired Park Ranger, Aka: My dad. Pt. 1
With the holiday season upon us, and just after a holiday so focused on family (U.S. Thanksgiving.) I thought it would be fun to do something different with this blog, and interview someone who helped enable and inspire the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Series. A man who worked for decades as a National Park Ranger, all throughout the country, my father.
On a small note, I could turn this into a much longer article. And he loves to tell stories about his time in the park service, but I will keep to the basics today, and perhaps do a more in-depth piece in the future.
The picture sits in Big Pine Key. But it’s of my dad and I in Biscayne. He told me where it was. I forgot. Maybe one of the houses on Adam’s Key.
So, let’s begin.
L. Wayne Landrum is a retired National Park Ranger who got his first job with the park service in New Mexico. He ended up working, in various positions, in National Parks from California to Florida. Raising 4 kids who grew up in these parks. He ended up writing books about two of the parks that he worked in, one of which is still in print: Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas. (You can find it in Southern Florida Parks, and for sale by him on Amazon, (although you have to navigate Amazon’s arcane search system to ensure that your actually buying the book from him. Make sure you are buying a ‘new’ book and the seller is L. Wayne Landrum.) He’s lived a life beyond his years in the park service, but that’s what I wanted to focus on today.
1. Q. Where and when did you start working in the park service?
L. Wayne Landrum: “In 1965 I started as a permanent park service employee in Carlsbad Caverns. But I started as a seasonal ranger three years before that.”
2. Q. So why did you start working in Carlsbad/what lead to that job choice?
L. Wayne Landrum: “I did like lifting one hundred pound bags of potash.” (Interviewers note: Dad has told stories about an earlier job where he was part of a 3 man team loading potash onto cargo trains. It definitely didn’t sound as exciting as cave exploring.) I grew up in Carlsbad, enjoyed working with people, and living in and around National Parks.” (Interviewers note: Dad has told multiple stories about exploring caves in the Carlsbad region, and I am reserving those for a future Carlsbad Book.)
3. Q. What was the best part about working in Carlsbad, or your favorite memory?
L. Wayne Landrum: “It got me used to dealing with and speaking to large groups of people from everywhere. There, I was a tour guide, I worked the desk. I gave tours. I got to learn how to do a lot of different things about within the park and the park service.”
4. Q. What was your background, and how did that help you get into the park service?
L. Wayne Landrum: “I have a college degree in Anthropology and Science. It gave me a background of learning, which helped in each park.”
5. Q. How many different parks have you worked in?
L. Wayne Landrum: “10 is the number I use. Carlsbad, Lake Powell, I count Lees Ferry seperately because it was so isolated from the rest of the Lake Powell Region, Channel Islands, Wupatki/Sunset Crater, Biscayne National Park, the Dry Tortugas, and the Everglades. But once I became a Law Enforcement Ranger, I also worked with a special events team that went to different places around the country. (Interviewer’s note. It was while working with one of these special events team, that my favorite picture of dad was taken.)
You’ve seen this one before! Isn’t it fun?
5. Q. What is a funny story about about working in national parks? Or some of your favorite experiences?”
L. Wayne Landrum: (off the top of his head) “In Carlsbad, as a seasonal, I remember we played all the typical pranks. Making announcements across the intercom for Seymore Butts, I. P. Freely, and the like. No one ever seemed to notice or catch on. The man reading the announcement's read them all sincerely and was never any the wiser. We’d also (playing pranks on each other) take tours in opposite directions through the Big Room, and watch the chaos as two big groups, of hundreds of tourists each, met up and had to squeeze around each other awkwardly. “
“I also really enjoyed working with my special events team, and have many good memories of working with 12 Law Enforcement Rangers to supervise a large gathering of people in Chaco Canyon for the Harmonic Convergence.” (Interviewers note: I will ask more about this later, but reserve the right to keep what I learn for future books.)
6. Q. Who are some of the interesting people you’ve met in the job?
L. Wayne Landrum: “Horace Albright would be the most interesting. He was the second director of the National Park Service. I spent a week with him on Channel Islands. He was really nice, and wrote me a very kind letter after that week. But I meat people throughout my career. In the Dry Tortugas, Senators and Congressmen would visit about every year. In general, I’d meet and supervise events with all sorts of interesting people.
7. Q. Would you recommend a job in the Park Service?
L. Wayne Landrum: “Yes. I mean, it was just always fun to work in places where people take vacations.”
Which is a quote echoed in my series. Carried on by several of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Members and their parents. I stole it from dad! It’s a Holiday Weekend. And who has time to read everything, (I’m missing out on a hand of Rook to write this.) So I will continue this interview next week. All of this was just set up for the interesting stuff so, Stay Tuned!!!!
Now for a brief marketing message!
If I could borrow you for one more moment. This year I am partnering with the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators to market my books. They’ve set up their own bookshop full of a selection of titles from Children’s Picture Books up to Young Adult Novels. It’s a great way to find my books, and a better way to find and support other artists. So, if you are waiting with baited breath for the next part of this interview, or for the next Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novel, consider checking out the link above to find a fun variety of books for yourself or other readers this holiday season.